XPro (formerly Tweetdeck) now available only to X Blue subscribers

X, formerly known as Twitter, has reportedly finally discontinued the free access to its social media management dashboard, XPro (previously Tweetdeck). The restriction that only paying subscribers can use XPro was imposed about a month back, with the billionaire owner Elon Musk informing users that the transition would take about 30 days. The transition is now over, and, as a result, only X Blue subscribers can access XPro. Also Read: Asus ROG Xbox Ally, ROG Xbox Ally X Gaming Handhelds Launched In India: Price, Features, Availability

Social media consultant Matt Navarra first spotted that the company has finally killed free access to the social media dashboard application for management, XPro. So, when you visit XPro without subscribing to X Blue, you will be redirected to the subscription page. Making XPro a paid feature is one of Musk’s strategies to turn his social media company profitable. In April, Musk said that Twitter is “roughly breaking even,” which justifies the recent changes to how the platform is offering services to users. Also Read: Asus ROG Xbox Ally, ROG Xbox Ally X Pre-Orders Begin In India Starting Today: Check Specs, Launch Date, and More

“I feel like we’re headed to a good place. We’re roughly break-even, [and] I think we’re trending toward being cash-flow positive very soon, literally in a matter of months,” a BBC report quoted Musk as saying. Also Read: Microsoft Reveals ROG Xbox Ally X, Xbox Ally Prices Ahead Of October 16 Launch: All Details

Besides making XPro a paid feature, X is also limiting traffic to select news websites. According to a report, the platform is controlling the traffic to certain websites, disliked by Musk, by slowing down the speed of accessing links. The websites included The New York Times, Instagram, Bluesky, Threads, Substack, among others, reports TechCrunch, citing sources.

On Tuesday, the platform seemed to be correcting this delayed access to websites. There was a five-second delay in the web pages loading after clicking on links to these websites on X.

In the past, Musk had publicly attacked each of these websites. Musk and X were potentially taking away traffic and ad revenue from these companies, by delaying traffic to the websites. Users can become impatient when content doesn’t load within a second or two, which can have an impact on the traffic to a website.

“A quick test showed that other major news organisations and websites, such as YouTube and Fox News, are unaffected,” the report said.

The platform’s former head of trust and safety posted on Bluesky that the delays seemed to be “one of those things that seems too crazy to be true, even for Twitter, until you see it inexplicably take 5 seconds for Chrome to receive 650 bytes of data.” He also noted that “UX research on web performance suggests that even a 1-second delay is enough for people to start to context switch, which increases bounce rates and decreases time spent on the linked site. Delays are annoying enough, even subconsciously, to drive people away”.

— Written with inputs from IANS